I highly doubt many players will want to buy epics with 10 or 25 durability.
The moment that epics become crystalline a few PvPers will find it their hobby to reduce the durability to 0. And that can easily be done with a few PvP hits over a few days.
And then the crystalline epic is worthless.
The crystalline epic in the example above takes a pair of Skally boots and a pair of Oggy gloves. At the current AH prices that will be worth around 600 FSP. And the idea is that these new epics will increase the price of old epics...
If these epics are used for stam gain then you'll have to wear them a lot and PvP is likely to happen.
For 600 FSP you can buy 15k stamina. So it will have to be an insanely high stam gain to make these epics worthwhile.
If these epics are mainly used for the PvP Arena then people will put them on and off in mere seconds and PvP is not very likely.
But there aren't many players who will buy epics solely for PvP Arena use, so it will hardly raise demand (and thus prices) on the old epics. :roll:
Good point, seems like the cost - risk isn't worth pursuing unless the gain is massive.
You're right. The gain would have to be exceptional to be worth the risk. And that's exactly how I would envision it -- incredible stats, incredible risk. The plus-10 gain stats were just an idea; if people think it isn't enough (and it might not be) what WOULD be worth it?
Alternatively, instead of upping the gain stats on the individual items, it could also work to make the items as part of a set -- again, like the old Gurgiss items. Each individual piece gives gain (plus-10 continues to be my baseline proposal, but that's open to discussion), plus the set bonus would give even more gain bonus.
The whole point of my idea is the notion of getting really incredible gain stats, but running a huge risk all the while, which I think would make things more interesting, and require a real sense of trade-off when selecting epics -- are the awesome stats worth all of the hassle and the expense of replacing them. At it's best, it would work as a potential gold sink, and create demand for ... nearly everything, honestly, since the original proposal of this thread was to utilize old epics in recipes to create new ones. Demand for Titan epics, RP epics, PvP Ladder rewards, Arena rewards, things from the Caves -- nearly everything would be in play. And if the items were popular, AND got broken fairly regularly (given the low durability), this demand would be constant, and hopefully spur on action in all facets of the game.